


Like An Old Married Couple

by missred



Series: Domestic Jalex [1]
Category: All Time Low, Bandom
Genre: Alex is a sickie, Coughing, Domestic Fluff, Fever, M/M, Prompt 2, Sick Alex, Sickfic, sort of, vic's vapor rub happens
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 01:49:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1801006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missred/pseuds/missred
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Alex is sick and Jack is an excellent boyfriend, even if it does ruin his plans.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like An Old Married Couple

It was storming as Jack made the hour and a half drive back from his cousins' house. Christine had gotten engaged and he's spent the week celebrating , though mostly this meant playing babysitter to all his younger cousins. Jack didn't mind, and in fact had had fun, he'd missed them, after all. But right now what he really wanted was to get back home and see Alex. 

Jack sped up unconsciously just thinking about his boyfriend-almost-fiancee. Well, Alex didn't know about that last part, but he would tonight. Jack had booked them a reservation at this high class restaurant in the city. He had it all planned out. The champagne, the ring, (a manly one, because they were manly men, but also beautiful, because Alex was…indescribable). It was far from their usual Sunday pizza. 

Jack had planned to get home early enough that they could hang out for a bit before going to dinner. Alex wasn't huge on PDA and Jack wanted to _cuddle_  him, goddamnit. Between the rain and the ensuing traffic, that was looking less and less likely. At least Alex would be ready to go. Jack had warned him they were going somewhere nice when he got back to avoid the pouting fit Alex would inevitably throw in the car about not knowing he needed to look good. 

When Jack finally pulls into Alex's driveway at 6:32, he's a mess. Excited, scared, and nervous all at once. This was not a problem he often experienced, and  he was not a fan. Jack tried to shake if off as he hurried up the rain-slick steps. He didn't bother knocking, pulling his copy of the key from his jacket pocket and slipping in the warm foyer. Silence greeted him. Normally Alex's quiet singing echoed through the whole house. He didn't even realize he was doing it--and Jack loved it. But there was none of that now.

"Alex?" He called, "I'm home."

"Just a second! I'm in the tv room." Alex responded. 

Jack frowned. Their reservation was for 7, and Alex was watching t.v? Plus he sounded, _off_ and for a brief second the idea of another man flitted through Jack's mind, but he brushed it off, Alex would never. 

"What'cha doing in there Al--" Jack stopped short. Alex was swaying, having shakily extracted himself from a mound of blankets on the couch. His dress shirt was rumpled underneath, and Jack was hit by the incongruity of it all. 

"I'm ready." He rasped. 

"Ready?" Jack repeated, stupidly. 

"Alex, why are you not in bed?"

"Don' need to be. You planned some big surprise and I wanna go."

Jack advanced slowly and gently pushed Alex back into the couch. 

"You look like you got hit by a truck 'lex."

It was true. Alex was paler than Jack had ever seen him, with flushed cheeks and the pale purple bruises he got under his eyes when he hadn't slept well for a while. 

"How long have you had this thing?"

"It's just--" Alex interrupted himself with a serious of harsh, chest deep coughs. "--a cough."

"Yeah," Jack muttered, "or Pneumonia."  

Alex never did anything halfway. Including getting sick.  

"C'mon, let's go get your pjs on." 

"Jack!" Alex protested weakly.

"I wanna go to your surprise. You've been planning all week." But he had sunk deep into the couch, and seemed unlikely to get up on his own again.

Jack sighed. "It'll wait. Promise."  And he hauled Alex up and followed him to the bedroom. 

Once he'd gotten Alex settled in a comfy t-shirt and flannel pants, Jack went rooting through his medicine cabinet. He found a mostly-empty bottle of tylenol, a kids' plastic thermometer, and a not-too-used jar  of Vic's vapor rub. It'd have to do.

Jack returned to the bedroom and found Alex already half-asleep sitting up, eyelids fluttering every time he coughed. Crawling into the tangle of blankets, Jack shook Alex lightly. 

"Babe? Just give me five minutes, okay?"

"Mmfhmm.." Alex mumbled. "Wanna sleep."

Jack swept the hair out of his eyes and grabbed the thermometer. 

"I know, I know. Just a sec. Open, please?" He asked, pushing softly on Alex's bottom lip.

"Mmm, you gonna kiss me, Jackie?" Alex's voice was thick with sleep. 

"Not quite. And keep that  _under_ your tongue! No cheating." Jack would be lying if he didn't admit how goddamn adorable Alex looked at that moment--hair mussed, sleepy eyes, and a hello kitty thermometer peeping out from his mouth. He was irresistible. Until the thermometer beeped and he started hacking up a lung again and shit, but Jack did not want whatever he had. Jack snatched the thermometer before Alex could intercept him and read

"101.3. You are officially sick, 'lex."

"Thanks for the excellent diagnosis, doc." Alex grumbled. He coughed, hard, and then spit into a tissue.

"you're lucky you're cute, you know that?" Jack told him. 

Alex flipped him the finger. 

"You're lucky I have a thing for foreign men." 

"We're from the same city, doofus." Jack retorted with a smile. It was an age-old joke for them. He almost forgot Alex was sick. Then, he hunched forward and began coughing in long, gasping breaths. It last about 30 seconds, but it only took about 10 for Jack to start panicking. 

By the time it subsided, Jack had already debated calling 911 four times. 

Alex sunk back into the pillows and gave him a wane smile. 

"I'm like, the olympic medalist of coughing." He croaked. 

"Yeah, you sure are." Jack laughed, but it was forced, and he was rattled.

"Take your shirt off."

Alex raised an eyebrow.

"Has my impressive coughing feat aroused you, Barakat?"

" Yup. You caught me." Jack rolled his eyes. 

"C'mon," he said, grabbing the vapor rub from the nightstand and pulling Alex's shirt over his head, "this'll help with the cough."

Alex shook his head vehemently.

"Oh _hell_ no. That stuff smells disgusting, and it _tingles_." 

Jack sighed and got a good handful on his fingers. He crawled on top of Alex and straddled his hips, let his full weight hold down his boyfriend. 

"You're not exactly in a position to make decisions on this."

Alex struggled a bit, but Jack was _heavy_ , and he was tired. 

"You are the worst." Alex fixed him with a mutinous glare as Jack spread vapor rub all over his chest. 

"Love you too." Jack responded with a grin, leaning over and pecking Alex's feverish forehead because he did love him, even when he was gross and sick. Then he rolled off the bed to wash his hands off. 

"You sure you're still gonna wanna rub gunk all over me when I'm no longer this suave and irresistable?" Alex joked when Jack returned. Jack took in his boyfriend. His silly sick boyfriend with his flushed cheeks and messed up hair and menthol goop all over his chest. He made a mental note to call the doctor's in Alex wasn't any better in the morning and thought about the ring in his jacket pocket downstairs.

He stripped out of his dress pants and threw his tie on the chair in the corner, then crawled into bed with the love of his life. 

"Yeah, I'm sure."

**Author's Note:**

> prompt fill for this : "Jack comes back from staying with family and is excited to see his boyfriend again only to get to Alex's and find him sick, miserable and trying not cough out his lungs. Cancelling the plans he had to take Alex out to dinner Jack stays to take care of him instead."
> 
> This is my first time writing Jalex. As always, apologies for any grammatical/ mechanical errors.


End file.
